Say prostitution and someone will immediately reply: "oldest practice in the world", "a necessary evil", "freedom of one's body..." These expressions are still widely used. What reality do we want to hide behind these overused clichés?

Oldest Practice in the World

Such a statement tries to legitimize prostitution by being rooted in history and maintaining its "natural" character. However, prostitution has not always existed everywhere. In primitive or traditional societies, prostitution is unknown. In Ancient Times, prostitution had a sacred element with no relation to the prostitutional system that we know today.

Even if prostitution was "the oldest practice in the world", is that enough reason to accept it? Do you excuse rape, incest, domestic violence, murder and barbarity under the pretext that these behaviors have existed since the mists of time?

Prostituting Oneself is a Choice

Some prostitutes do claim their right to sell their body, however, that is only a minority. A minority who is widely publicized, and hides the fate of a majority condemned to silence: abducted women, forced onto sidewalks, prisoners of criminal or resigned networks...In this case, prostitution is an evident violence and recognized by all.

What about the other? What is the reality of the freedom of choice invoked by others? « Engagement in corrupt sex is never a deliberate or voluntary act - writes Lilian Mattieu, sociologist. - A product of the lack of other alternatives, it is always the result of stress, or at best, a resigned adaptation marked by distress, lack or violence ».

It is neither our resilience nor intention, to morally judge the lives of others, but we completely reject this collective complacency when it comes to prostitution, which allows our society to have a clear conscience and not question what is a shame, an impasse.

IT IS NOT BY CHOICE, BUT BY LACK OF ANY OTHER, THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE RESORT TO PROSTITUTION!

Prostitution is a « Necessary Evil »

One of the most common areas anchored in our collective conscience. In the fifth century, St. Augustin wrote: « prostitutes are in the city what a cesspool is in a palace. Take away the cesspool and the palace becomes a place of filth. Take away the prostitutes and passions will disrupt the world ». In 1836, Dr. Parent-Duchatelet confirmed: « prostitutes are as inevitable in a mass of men, as sewers, roads, garbage cans... ».

Prostitution is therefore considered as an evil by society, but an evil that one accepts because prostitution serves as an outlet for every hardship, perversion, and fantasy. One must, however, ask: can one sacrifice a category of women in order to preserve the "order" of society?

Prostitution prevents rape

Which must mean that every single client of prostitution could be a rapist. The motivations which encourage the rapist and the client of prostitution are different. Considering the number of sexual abuse and rapes committed in our societies, it is clear that prostitution does not prevent rape...On the contrary! Prostitution « acts as an invitation to sexual violence, - explains Claudine Legardinier, journalist and militant, - reinforcing the idea that the body of another, in this case the body of the woman, is a public object that every man can legitimately own by force or money ».

Men have "Irrepresible Sexual Needs" which Prostitution must Satisfy

Prostitution rests on the idea that the male desire needs an immediate satisfaction and that female bodies should be made available for this purpose. It is one of the reasons that make prostitution a "necessary evil"!

Psychologists and sexologists challenge this completely imaginary conception of the male sexuality. « There is no sexual need nor desire that is irrepresible(...), write psychologists Suzanne Képès and Philippe Brenot, but rather demanding personalities who have difficulty managing their impulses and accepting their frustration... The alleged need for periodic discharge of semen is not an obligation ».

The idea of an irrepresible male desire has no scientific foundation and results in a fundamentally unequal conception of the relation between men and women. « Since childhood, one assigns individuals by their sex, - affirms anthropologist Françoise Héritier to Le Monde - This creates two ways of being: the habit of frustration for women and the immediate satisfaction, considered normal, that drives men. »